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High Waves in Bay of Biscay seen by Jason-2 and GlobWave

During the night of 3rd March 2013, the French and Spanish coasts were hit by a storm surge and heavy winds from storm "Christine", the latest in a series of winter storms.

The Jason-2 spacecraft passed over the area at 2134 UTC on the evening of the 3rd March. Data from its Ku band altimeter were processed by the ESA DUE GlobWave project, and made available in the eSurge database.

The measurements (above) show a significant wave height of over 11m. This is broadly consistent with wave heights of 14m predicted before the event (see e.g. here).

Warnings were issued for western France and Northern Spain as heavy waves and coastal swell impacted these areas (see image).

A selection of videos made of the storm surge in Spain can be seen here, while the aftermath can be seen in these images.

Jason-2 is a cooperation mission between NASA, NOAA, EUMETSAT and CNEX. It carries a Poseidon-3 Ku band altimeter. More information: